blows on the robber. We heard plenty of phrases then, supposedly we "do not believe in the forces of the working class," but we did not let ourselves be deceived by the phrase.

3rd stage. Civil war from the Czechoslovaks and the "constituents" to Wrangel, 1918-1920. Our Red Army did not exist at the beginning of the war. This army is even now insignificant against any army of the Entente countries if one compares material forces. And yet, we won in the struggle against the all-powerful Entente. The union of peasants and workers, under the leadership of the proletarian state power, has been raised—as a conquest of world history—to an unprecedented height. The Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries played the role of accomplices of the monarchy, both as direct ones (ministers, organizers, preachers) and as disguised ones (the most "subtle" and most despicable position of the Chernovs and Martovs, who supposedly washed their hands, but in fact worked with pen against us). Anarchists also thrashed about helplessly: part helped us, part spoiled our work with cries against military discipline or skepticism.

4th stage. The Entente is forced to end (for how long?) intervention and blockade. The unprecedentedly devastated country is barely-barely beginning to recover, only now seeing the full depth of devastation, experiencing the most agonizing calamities, stoppage of industry, crop failures, hunger, epidemics.

We have risen to the highest and at the same time to the most difficult stage in our world-historical struggle. The enemy at the present moment and for the present period of time is not what it was yesterday. The enemy is not the hordes of White Guards under the command of landowners, supported by all Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, by all international bourgeoisie. The enemy is the everyday character of the economy in a petty-peasant country with a devastated large-scale industry. The enemy is the petty-bourgeois element, which surrounds us like air and penetrates very strongly into the ranks of the proletariat. And the proletariat is declassed, that is, knocked out of its class groove. Factories and plants stand idle—the proletariat is weakened, dispersed, exhausted. And the petty-bourgeois element within the state
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is supported by all international bourgeoisie, still all-powerful in the world.

Well, how is one not to lose heart here? Especially such heroes as the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, as knights of the II

But we are already used to them.

We do not minimize the danger. We look it straight in the face. We say to workers and peasants: the danger is great—more solidarity, endurance, coolheadedness, cast out with contempt the Menshevik-minded, Socialist Revolutionary-minded, panic-mongers and howlers.

The danger is great. The enemy is much stronger than us economically, as yesterday it was much stronger than us militarily. We know this, and in this knowledge lies our strength. We have already done gigantically much both for the cleansing of Russia from feudalism, and for the development of all forces of workers and peasants, and for the world struggle against imperialism, and for the international proletarian movement, liberated from the vulgarities and baseness of the II and II

Whoever fears defeat before the beginning of a great struggle can call himself a socialist only in mockery of the workers.

Precisely because we are not afraid to look danger in the face, we better utilize our forces for struggle—we are more sober, more cautious, we weigh the chances more carefully—we make all concessions that strengthen us and shatter the forces of the enemy (as even the last fool can now see, that the "Brest Peace" was

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